


dibs

by SafelyCapricious



Series: ain't no grave can hold my body down [9]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate History, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, No Uchiha Massacre
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-10
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:35:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26922976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SafelyCapricious/pseuds/SafelyCapricious
Summary: It was a well known secret that the reason the Uchiha were put under house arrest and no longer allowed to leave their compound over ten years ago was because a group of the family had planned a coup to take over the village.What was less well know was that while the main conspirers had been executed, the rest of the clan were given the option of having seals placed on them like the branch family of the Hyuuga, or being sealed into their compound until they learned their lesson (the details about how they would ‘learn their lesson’ were a little unclear, Sakura liked to imagine them being forced to watch propaganda films about how awesome Konoha was and reciting songs).
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Itachi
Series: ain't no grave can hold my body down [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1950148
Comments: 38
Kudos: 276





	dibs

**Author's Note:**

> Is this a fic I wrote back in like 2012 that's never seen the light of day? Yes. Is it getting published today because I lost the will to complete a different fic for fictober? Also yes. Did I bother to edit this at all? That would be a no.
> 
> ~~(I mean, I have edited it before, it's probably fine).~~
> 
> Welcome to fictober everyone, where the rules are self enforced and the points don't matter. I'm gonna say this is for "death"? Idk either man, but I use the word dead a few times and some people die, so it'll do. Day nine, here we are. Trekin' along.

It was a well known secret that the reason the Uchiha were put under house arrest and no longer allowed to leave their compound over ten years ago was because a group of the family had planned a coup to take over the village.

What was less well know was that while the main conspirers had been executed, the rest of the clan were given the option of having seals placed on them like the branch family of the Hyuuga, or being sealed into their compound until they learned their lesson (the details about how they would ‘learn their lesson’ were a little unclear, Sakura liked to imagine them being forced to watch propaganda films about how awesome Konoha was and reciting songs).

What was known by a very small group of individuals was that these options were not the choice of the Hokage at the time, The Third, but rather demands made by the council, and a single council member in particular, known as Danzo.

What was known by an even smaller group was that since Tsunade took office she had been attempting to get the house arrest lifted from the clan.

Naturally it had been a fight uphill for quite some time, but when information came to light that Danzo was attempting to do away with the Hokage and take her place (for the good of the village), and had, to meet these ends, been selling information _about_ Konoha to her enemies (the ends justifying the means), well, it didn’t take terribly long for his execution to take place — and after that it was fairly easy for Tsunade to steam roll the council to get what she wanted.

Naturally it wasn’t a perfect situation. Most of the village, at least the non-civilian population of the village knew some of the circumstances of the lock up, and it was unlikely they would welcome the Uchiha back with open arms — regardless of the fact that those who had been locked up had at most been peripherally involved and had been forced to isolation, unfairly as Tsunade thought, for over ten years.

So it had been very important that Tsunade select the perfect group of shinobi to carry out the mission of reintegrating the Uchiha — Shinobi who were excellent in their own fields and unlikely to have any prejudices against the sharingan wielding individuals.

It ended up being a group who did fit those requirements...but with the main reasoning of them not being able to run away in time when Tsunade was assigning the mission.

Which was how Ino, Sai, Naruto, Sakura and Shikamaru ended up manning the booth that was at the entrance to the Uchiha compound. Each had a sign above their seat proclaiming what section of the alphabet they were giving scrolls too — first names, naturally, since if it was last they’d all end up at U, and each had a pile of individually titled scrolls stacked up beside them.

They had, of course, been the ones forced to put together the scrolls as well. That is to say, Sakura and Shikamaru had, since Naruto had gotten bored and accidentally set the few scrolls he’d done on fire, Ino never showed up and Sai spent so long decorating the one scroll he finished with paintings that Sakura told him to leave.

So Sakura and Shikamaru had managed to create a massive amount of scrolls — each detailing at what level the shinobi who was receiving it was at (according to their last participating in the village, over ten years ago), and giving them a time and a location for testing if they wished to go up ranks. After all the testing was done there would be team assignments, where needed, and the start of missions. So the hard part was really over, now they just had to hand out the scrolls, one by one, and answer any questions the ninja may have.

The booth was ready, but Tsunade was speaking to the Uchiha before they swarmed them.

Shikamaru, whose sign proclaimed “U-Z”, had his head resting against the back of the chair and appeared to be sleeping. Sakura, seated next to him, had her head pillowed on her arm and seemed to be doing likewise, her sign read “P-T”.

Naruto was babbling a million miles a minute to the sleeping Sakura some story that seemed to involve a bath house, copious amounts of ramen noodles and a frog — Shizune who was in charge of dealing with any problems and was the only one who was bothering to listen to the story wasn’t entirely sure, but was hoping that it was a dream the boy had had, and nothing that actually happened.

Naruto was dealing with the ninja’s whose first names were “K-O”. Sai, having “F-J” was busy drawing a caricature of sleeping Sakura that was probably going to get him knocked half way across the village if the girl ever found out about it. Ino was the only one who had actually volunteered for the mission, after finding some old photos of Uchiha, declaring them all “delicious.” She was excited to have “A-E” and was applying another coat of lip gloss to suitably impress the males who had to be in some real need of female company after being stuck in there for so long.

Everyone was so involved in their own thing that it wasn’t until Tsunade slammed a hand into the middle of the long table, causing the whole thing to shudder, that any of them realized she was there. Which meant she had probably finished whatever talk she’d wanted to give the Uchiha, and that they were about to show up.

Ino leaned forward, excited. Sai added a snot bubble to his drawing. Naruto asked Tsunade when they were breaking for lunch. And the other two kept on sleeping. (They had been working on the scrolls for most of the night and morning.) Tsunade cleared her throat, which still failed to wake the resting duo. As the Uchiha finally exited the compound, milled around then headed for the table, Tsunade simply walked away to do her paperwork at her own table. It didn’t take long for Naruto to poke Sakura awake, who pushed Shikamaru out of his chair to wake him up (because if she had to be awake then so did he.)

Passing out scrolls wasn’t exactly intellectually exciting, so when her standard question of “Name?” was answered not with a name but a “When do you get off work, gorgeous?”

It took her a moment to respond. And when she did it was just a confused stare and a “What?”

“What time do you get off work? I need someone to show me around town since it’s been so long, and I’d love for it to be you.”

A smile grew on Sakura’s face, then quickly disappeared as the ninja continued, oblivious.

“I mean, who better than a pretty office girl? It’ll be nice for you to take a break from paperwork too I’ll bet.” He offered a roguish wink, completely unaware that he had just said the exactly wrong thing.

Sakura cracked her knuckles and tilted her head behind her, “Shishou, may I have permission to —”

“No.” Tsunade had heard the interaction and didn’t bother to look up from the crossword she was doing behind a stack of paperwork.

“But Shishou --”

“No.”

Sakura let out a huff of breath, the ninja in question who misunderstood the interaction offered a charming grin, “It doesn’t have to be right now, babe, I can wait until you get off work.”

Sai leaned forward and grinned, squinty eyed, at Sakura, “You really should take him up on the offer, Hag, once they get more socialized they won’t make mistakes like asking you ou—”

Naruto, showing rare perception, leaned his chair backwards just in time so he didn’t even get hit by a stray elbow as Sakura lunged and Sai subsequently went flying.

Sakura straightened her shirt then sat back down, offering Naruto a smile for moving out of the way.

Shikamaru arched an eyebrow, “You ask if you’re allowed to hit the other guy and don’t ask before you hit Sai?”

Sakura looked, blankly, at Shikamaru, “Well yeah. He’s _Sai_.”

Instead of bothering to pursue the line of questioning, Shikamaru just shook his head, mumbled “troublesome” and went back to work.

Sakura looked at the now slightly paler Uchiha ninja, gave a crinkly eye smile that looked eerily similar to the one Sai had given her earlier, and asked again, “Name?”

Naturally the ninja replied, she handed him the scroll labeled Shisui, and she waited for the next person in line to approach her. Before the next ninja’s shock wore off, however, Sai appeared in a puff of smoke — one side of his face already turning a lovely shade of blue. He was just preparing to sit down when, with another huff, Sakura grabbed the bottom of his cropped shirt and tugged him towards her, “Come’er you baby.” And with a glowing green hand proceeded to remove the evidence of her anger.

Naruto glanced back at them, and grinning, asked, “How far’d you make it?”

Sai waited until Sakura had finished before moving his no longer sore jaw, offering a smile, and while settling into his seat answered, “I think I would have hit the monument if I didn’t hit those trees in the memorial park on the way.”

Sakura grinned, taking this for a compliment, and waved the next in line forward. It seemed like they were almost half-way done, if the decreasing pile of scrolls in her basket was accurate.

It had become fairly simple and quick, but upon her inquiry of “Name?” receiving a response of “Sasuke.” she paused and eyed the boy, who looked to be about her age, in front of her. It took her a moment to realize why she recognized him, but when she did a smile split her face and she leaned forward to look down the table. “Hey Pig!”

Before anyone could spend too long wondering why someone was calling for a farm animal, Ino leaned forward as well, “What do you want Forehead? Can’t you see I’m _busy_?” And she tilted her head in the direction of the dark haired ninja she was chatting up.

Waving her concern away, Sakura grinned, “You remember the pretty boy in our class we almost came to blows over?”

Ino sighed and rested her chin in her hand, getting misty eyed, “Prettiest boy I have ever seen.”

Sakura nearly cackled and pointed to the confused boy whose scroll she hadn’t yet handed over, “He’s still pretty!”

Poor Sasuke flushed as Ino leaned over to get a good look — and when she did waved both arms in the air like a crazy person, “Ooooh, he is! I call dibs!”

Laughing, Sakura leaned back and started attempting to find the scroll she needed as the increasingly uncomfortable boy tried not to squirm. Sakura finally found it and looked up, before calling back out, “You know Ino, I think he might be prettier than you!”

An outraged cry came from the blond. “You take that back! He is not!”

Sakura handed the scroll over, winked at the boy and nodded. “He totally is!”

Sasuke beat a hasty retreat.

After a moment Sai turned towards Ino, asking, “What are dibs? And why does one call them?”

Ino laughed and explained, “Dibs are when you see something you want, you call dibs and then you get it before anyone else, or get to pick the one you want before anyone else.”

Sai nodded, and after a few moments turned towards the blond on his other side, “Dickless, I found someone for you to call dibs on.”

Sakura snickered and rolled her eyes, already knowing that there was bound to be a male standing there — Naruto’s outraged cry confirmed it. She finished handing off another scroll before glancing over and grinning. The ninja that Sai had chosen wasn’t the most attractive Uchiha she’d seen, but she hadn’t really seen any of the clan who wasn’t somewhat attractive yet. She considered for a moment, shrugged, then called out, “Dibs.”

Naruto, who had been trying to wrestle out of the headlock Sai had put him in after he’d lunged at the other boy started flailing even more, “Sakura!”

Sai looked at his female teammate with a slightly disapproving stare, “You can’t call dibs on him Sakura, Naruto already has them.”

Sakura grinned. “But Naruto doesn’t want them, so I can have them. Right Naruto?”

Naruto continued to flail and finally got out of Sai’s hold. “No you can’t!”

It was a struggle not to laugh. “So you do want the dibs on, I’m sorry, what’s your name?” She directed the last question on the surprisingly still composed ninja who was waiting for his scroll.

He observed the proceedings for a long moment, expressionless, before replying in a voice that would’ve been enough to make her call dibs even if he had looked like Gamabunta. “Itachi.”

She smiled and tried not to blush before turning back to Naruto, “So you do want your dibs on Itachi, Naruto?”

Naruto waved his arms around, “No — I mean, yes — I mean, gah!”

Sakura arched an eyebrow and Naruto changed directions, suddenly pointing a finger towards Itachi, “You so much as look at my Sakura and I’ll kill you! Kill you so dead you’ll be deader than dead!”

Sakura gave up and laughed, before grabbing her friend’s collar and dragging him back to his seat, “Fine, fine. The dibs are yours. I’ll just have to find someone else. I wonder if Genma is still single?”

“Sakura!” Naruto was turning funny colors, and Sakura decided it was time to stop teasing him, before he asphyxiated.

“I’m kidding, relax. Come on, we can do ramen once we finish. My treat.”

  
And that was all she had to say to win the blond back to her side — and with added incentive he pretty much took over the entire operation — with clones, because the rest of them were apparently taking too long and he wanted ramen right then. So it only took another twenty minutes before all five of them were seated at Ichiraku, chatting and, in the case of Naruto, inhaling ramen.

Sakura didn’t really think much more about the reintegration of the Uchiha. Her part in it was over, at least for now. She figured she might eventually end up being the medic on hand for some of the testing, but since it hadn’t yet been assigned to her she was simply enjoying her days off.

It took her a few days to even notice how things had changed — sure there were slightly more ninja then before, and yeah, most of the new ninja had dark hair and eyes — But they were also nearly all avoided by the other ninja population. It reminded Sakura of the passive aggressive behavior she’d seen her teammate subjected to when they were younger, and it made her boiling mad.

She wanted to yell and scream and lecture — but while the talking always seemed to work for Naruto, she’d traditionally had less success with it. She was still deciding on her plan of attack when she saw a middle aged Uchiha woman being outrageously overcharged for some tomatoes.

The woman had paused upon hearing the price, and frowning was reaching for her money when Sakura showed up. If the lady was too polite to make a scene, well, Sakura wasn’t. She stepped next to the lady and instead of addressing the stall owner, addressed the woman. “How much is he charging you for those tomatoes?”

The woman blinked, surprised she was being addressed, and with a frown still in place told her in a soft voice, “Twelve per kilo.”

Sakura snorted and glared at the stall owner, “That’s not how much those tomatoes cost.” And when the stall owner tried to say something she pointed a finger at him, “Don’t talk to me, I’m mad at you.”She offered the dark haired woman a smile and held out her hand, “I’m Sakura Haruno. The tomatoes are four a kilo, but lets only pay three for them since this guy is going to try to bribe me so I don’t report him to the Hokage.”

The woman hesitated, shifting, “I don’t want to cause any trouble.”

Sakura grinned and cracked her knuckles, “Exactly. So you’re going to keep an eye on me so I don’t cause any trouble. How many kilos did you say you wanted? And I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name.”

The woman considered before holding out her hand, “I’m Mikoto. And two kilos.”

Sakura quickly picked out two kilos, handed over six riyals to the stall vendor, who accepted it without comment (shot him a quick glare) then followed Mikoto, easily carrying the bags of tomatoes. “So where to next?”

It took a few stalls for Mikoto to warm up to Sakura, but before too long the two were chatting like they’d been friends forever.

Sakura was well known around the market place, and while some of the vendors were still against the Uchiha, they didn’t try to pull any tricks when Sakura was standing there.

It took a little convincing for Mikoto to let Sakura help her carry all the groceries back to her house -- she also insisted on helping to unpack everything.

The two had settled down for some tea and rice balls when it was done, and the talk had turned to genjutsu. Mikoto had been a ninja before she’d gotten pregnant and decided to retire in order to raise her boys — and Sakura loved hearing about techniques that were new to her. The two were deep into a conversation revolving around battle tactics when the door to the kitchen opened. Mikoto looked up with a smile, “Itachi, I would like to introduce you to Sakura.”

Sakura glanced up, surprised that in all the houses in the entire compound where she could end up she found the one where the one guy who she’d called dibs on lived. He was probably going to think she was stalking him now.

Itachi’s eyebrow rose upon seeing the pink haired girl at his table, but otherwise his expression didn’t change. “We have met.” he paused to consider, “I believe she has dibs on me.”

Mikoto obviously didn’t understand the reference, and Sakura refused to be embarrassed, so instead she just waved a hand through the air. “Actually, Naruto still has dibs, he never gave them up.” She stood up, “It was lovely to talk to you Mikoto, I hope we can do it again sometime. And if you ever have any trouble in the market again, you let me know, okay? I’ll take care of it.”

If Sakura had been paying attention she would’ve seen Itachi’s expression darken, “Someone has been giving you trouble, mother?”

Mikoto waved a hand, much like Sakura had, “No, just the usual.”

Sakura shook her head and refuted it. “Yes. People were trying to overcharge her — like the price of anything has gone up that much in ten years. You could always stand behind her and glower, that might help, you are mighty intimidating. Alright, I have to run. Bye!” And with a wave she was out the door and heading on her way.

**Author's Note:**

> Lemme know what you think. Again, I wrote this like eight years ago so ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> I wanted to continue it, but that obviously didn't happen. So enjoy this like...as is. 
> 
> Questions, concerns, just wanna talk? Find me [on tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/capriciouswrites), and let me love you.


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